Artspeak Radio + Linda Jurkiewicz, Kitty Barrett-Kraai, and Phil Dunn

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes artists Linda Jurkiewicz & Kitty Barrett-Kraai, Phil Dunn, & Justin Canja.

LINDA JURKIEWICZ- WHO WILL HEAR MY PLEA?

The artist continues to explore the roles of women in her latest installation, “Who Will Hear My Plea?”, as she works with images of saints, martyrs, and goddesses. Using the figure she delightfully calls BAH!, which first came to her in a dream, she explores the limitations, bravery, passion, zeal and compassion of figures related to the Catholic church, paganism, and other cultures.
Using imagery from the Renaissance and Middle Ages as reference, a time when the general population could not read nor write, and then utilized this imagery as their “lesson”, the artist observed only small differences between a woman’s life then and now.

Who might women call today?
What messages might these images from the past offer to women today?
Who might possibly hear today’s women in their plea for help?

Linda Jurkiewicz lives in Kansas City and began working with fiber in 2005. She credits her upbringing as a first generation Ukrainian-Croatian for her “make-do” attitude and her delight in upcycling repurposed materials, especially “woman’s work” such as dish towels, household items and clothing. Her consequential fiber work incorporates soft sculpture, word play, idiom, embroidery, wall hangings, plush form, sequential dioramas, and installations which delve into the cultural roles of women in America over the last century; roles that are changing, and roles that she pushes viewers to reexamine, to trade nostalgia for empowerment.

Jurkiewicz’s work has been shown in two solo shows in Kansas City galleries in 2022. Her work has been juried into numerous exhibitions locally. Nationally, her work has been included in Woman Made Gallery 24th International Exhibit, Chicago, Illinois (2023), Blue Hour at Intersect Art Center, St. Louis, MO (2023), Amarillo Museum of Art Biennial-600: Textile/Fiber, Amarillo, Texas (2019), Raw – The Exhibition at Indiana University (2018), Sacred Threads in Herndon, VA (2017 and 2019), The Blue Show at the Core New Art Space (2017) and The Engaged Object at the Foothills Art Center (2016), both in Denver, Colorado, and Welcome to My World: Mental Health Awareness through Art at the MIRI Gallery (2016). Salt Lake City, Utah. Jurkiewicz is a member of the Kansas City Artists Coalition.

Installation by Linda Jurkiewicz
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, KCMO
July 7 – September 30, 2023

Artist Talks: July 8th, Saturday at 1:30 p.m and September 16th, Saturday at 11:a.m.
The artist continues to explore the roles of women in her latest installation
of images of saints, martyrs, and goddesses.

lizzer58.wixsite.com/lindajurkiewicz

KITTY BARRETT-KRAAI -Experimental artist Kitty Barret-Kraai creates colorful mixed media pieces inspired by the human body. Often using recycled and reused materials, she thrives on the challenge and unpredictability of these materials. Kitty’s artwork will be on display at the Antioch branch until August 21, 2023.
Kitty is the Kansas City multi-media artist behind BelligerentCrow Works. They have been making art their whole life, but started selling in small local art fairs in 2021. This is the first time Kitty will be showcasing their art with the Johnson County Library. They use recycled material, loose parts, and other mixed media to create works that can be explored through touch as well as sight! Creating art that is accessable to more humans of the world.
Antioch Library 8700 Shawnee Mission Pkwy
Merriam, KS 66202

PHIL DUNN Phil Dunn and Justin Canja both were individual working artists on the rise when they met and started live painting together about 2 years ago. Each artist had spent years developing their own style. They shared an appreciation for each other’s work and a passion for the creative process, especially in a live setting.  After several completed live paintings, the positive response to the work and the excitement generated by those who witnessed each creation, the duo decided to expand into a studio setting as well to comprise a body of work wholly unique from each other’s individual output thereby creating a “third artist”. WIP (work in progress) was born , and will continue to evolve as a living testament to collaboration and organic, real time creation and artistic expression.

The pair’s artworks focus on socio-political topics by means of painting, collage and installation. They reference current events and juxtapose them with points in history with the attempt to link the physical and metaphysical through over the top gestural expression and the emotion connected to found objects and ephemera. Generally using ironic humor in combination with light hearted color combinations they prefer to grab the attention of the onlooker by the means of a striking first impression. With prolonged viewing the circumstantial moment in time tends to reveal itself by means of mark making, layered text, powerful imagery and ultimately a capsulation of our view of the human condition.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday July 7th, 5PM- WIP live painting and art exhibition
MOD Gallery 1809 Mcgee, KCMO 64108

Friday July 21st, 5pm- WIP Live painting and art exhibition
80 Sante Fe Art Gallery
*part of COLOR POPS show which will run 7/21/23 -8/11/23

Sept 1st-3rd- WIP live painting and booth in Art in the Park
Kansas City Irish Fest Crown Center 2405 Grand Boulevard, KCMO 64108

WIP

Insta: @WIPliveart

PHIL DUNN Insta: @phildunnartkc Facebook: phildunnartkc

JUSTIN CANJA Insta:@papermonkeyartstudio Facebook: Paper Monkey Movement

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